birth fourteen anger from between brahma's eyebrows
one scriptural basis anger as a body part power
in one key passage the srimad bhagavata maha
purana teaches that different sins and powers
come out of different parts of brahma's body
in this list anger is said to come from between
his eyebrows while lust comes from his heart,
greed from his lips, speech from his mouth, the
oceans from his genitals, and low and abominable
activities from his anus. Srimad Bhagavata Mahaparana,
Canto 3, The Status Quo, Chapter 12, Verse 26
in other words anger is not described first as
a wrong choice of a creature but as something
that begins in the body of the creator figure
himself the same chapter later shows how brahma's
inner life actually spills over into shameful
actions when he becomes attracted to his own
daughter vak his sons rebuke him he then gives
up a body that had become stained by this behaviour
and that thrown -off body appears as a dark dangerous
fog that fills the universe srimad bhagavata
maha purana canto three chapter twelve verses
twenty seven to twenty nine in this picture what
lies between his eyebrows is not just a neutral
location it is the place where anger starts and
that anger belongs to the same inner world that
produces lust and shame this raises simple but
serious questions if the first anger in the universe
comes from the creator's own face how can he
be the pure standard by which all anger is judged
if his body is already a mixture of holy things
and unholy things some coming from the head some
from the heart some from the lower openings how
can we say that evil began with created beings
instead of with their maker's inner life and
if anger is built into the creator in this way
is anger really an enemy he opposes or just one
more power that flows out of him two the scientific
prosecution can anger literally come from between
eyebrows if we take this story as a statement
about bodies and not just as poetry it makes
claims that can be tested the verse speaks as
if anger physically comes out from the space
between brahma's eyebrows in simple physical
terms what is between eyebrows is skin small
muscles that move the brow connective tissue
nerves and bone there is no special anger gland
there from basic brain science we know that angry
feelings are tied to brain activity especially
in deep brain areas and the frontal lobes to
hormones released from glands in the body and
to the nervous system they do not leak from a
strip of skin over the eyes to say anger comes
from between the eyebrows is to confuse a symbol
a facial expression that shows anger with a source
the inner cause of anger a furrowed brow can
show anger but it does not create it if some
one insisted that this description is ancient
science they would need to answer simple questions
what substance is anger made of when it comes
out from between the eyebrows how does this substance
travel from brahma to other beings if anger is
a kind of stuff where is it stored in the body
and how is it measured without answers the claim
is clearly not a serious description of how bodies
and emotions work it is a picture drawn from
the surface of the face We frown when angry and
project it onto a god without any real understanding
of the brain or the body. 3. Simple, logical
questions. What kind of god does this describe?
If anger really starts between Brahma's eyebrows
and that anger belongs to him before it belongs
to anyone else, then anger is a built -in part
of the being at the top of this world. that means
the universe begins with a god whose inner life
includes anger lust greed and shame these forces
do not first appear as the sins of creatures
but as powers in his own body this makes him
very different from a holy and unchanging god
instead of being fully good from the beginning
He looks more like a person whose own feelings
are unstable and mixed. His heart produces lust.
The space between his eyebrows produces anger.
His lower parts produce filthy actions. Then
he has to throw away a bad body because he is
ashamed of what he has done. That sounds like
a God who grows, fails, and cleans up after himself,
not an all -pure creator. If this is the kind
of God you start with, it becomes hard to say
why anger or lust are truly wrong. How can they
be fully evil if they are part of him? If we
say anger is sin in us, but not sin in him, we
are using two different measures. That double
standard undercuts the idea that there is one
clear, unchanging moral law for everyone. the
eyebrow anger of the sages if this verse is held
up as deep wisdom or subtle psychology it is
fair to ask what it really offers it tells us
that lust pours out from a god's heart anger
comes from between his eyebrows the lowest sins
flow from his anus this is not real medicine
real psychology or real science. It is an old
way of speaking that treats body parts as if
they were the engines of moral forces. in everyday
life people still say i feel it in my heart or
it was written on his face but nobody serious
today thinks that the skin between our eyebrows
physically produces anger when such language
is transferred to a god and then defended as
sacred truth it deserves to be challenged there
is also a spiritual danger here people who are
crushed by their own anger may already feel that
evil is in their bones this story tells them
that such anger is also in the god at the head
of everything that it began between his eyebrows
before it began in them that does not set them
free from anger it makes anger feel like part
of the deepest layer of reality Instead of giving
them a holy and calm Creator who stands above
their rage and can heal it, it gives them a God
who shares their problem at the most basic level.
5. The Holy Heart of God and the Human Heart
The Bible talks about the heart of God and the
heart of man in a very different way. It says
about the true God that God is light. In Him
there is no darkness at all. first epistle of
john chapter one verse five that means that no
sin no wrong desire no unjust anger ever begins
inside him he is pure goodness when the bible
talks about a face or eyes of god it is using
picture language but those pictures never mean
that sin comes out of god's face about humans
scripture says The heart is deceitful above all
things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
Book of Jeremiah, chapter 17, verse 9. Many translations.
In other words, our anger and our wrong desires
start in our hearts, not in God's. This is the
opposite of the Puranic picture. There, lust
and anger start in the heart and brow of the
Creator. In the Bible, they start in fallen people
who have turned away from the Creator. Jesus
Christ takes this even deeper when he says, Anyone
who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery with her in his heart. Gospel according
to Matthew, chapter 5, verse 28. He does not
say that lust comes from God's heart or God's
body. He says it is our inner problem. at the
same time he shows a heart that is completely
pure he is tempted but does not sin he never
acts from selfish anger he does become angry
at hypocrisy and injustice but that anger is
always right and never mixed with sin from a
presuppositional point of view a god whose own
eyebrows give birth to anger cannot be the firm
ground for logic morality and human worth. If
evil sits inside him from the start, then evil
is part of what reality is, not something that
has gone wrong. But the God of the Bible is fully
good, and his anger is always clean, aimed at
real evil, never driven by selfish passion. That
kind of God can truly judge our anger, forgive
it, and change us. For someone who lives with
deep anger, Maybe from abuse, betrayal, or long
injustice, the difference matters. One story
says, Anger is in your God, just as it is in
you. It started between his eyebrows. The other
says, Anger is in your heart, because you and
your world are broken, but your Maker is not
broken, and in Christ he can give you a new heart.
Only the second story gives real hope that anger
is not part of God's nature, and so it does not
have to rule ours forever.